Environment: Naples symbolic city on Earth Day 2012

Sunday concert by Anggun with environmental message

(ANSAmed) - NAPLES, APRIL 20 - ''From Naples, the
city that has endured difficult years with its waste disposal
problem, now launches a fresh signal for looking after the
environment''. So said the Coordinator of Earth Day in Naples,
Tommaso Mandato, by explaining why the city has been chosen for
the concert on April 22, the main event of Earth Day
celebrations in Italy.
The concert, to be hosted by Serena Dandini, will feature
Anggun. The singer from Indonesia is the FAO Goodwill Ambassador
in the fight against hunger throughout the world, and who last
year was involved in reforestation projects in the tsunami-hit
areas. Alongside Aggun on the stage will be the Rezophonic
collective, made up of over 150 singers including Enrico
Ruggeri, Sud Sound System, Roy Paci and Francesco Sarcina: all
artists committed to supporting AMREF (African Medical and
Research Foundation) whose causes are close to those of Earth
Day. So far, this group has contributed to the construction of
128 wells, 13 rainwater cisterns and three schools in a region
between Kenya and Tanzania.
The Chair of the organization, Pierluigi Sassi, spoke of how
''Earth Day Italia is celebrating its 42nd World Earth Day with
a big concert in Naples that will be broadcast via live
streaming and which will be available across the world. We
wanted to stage this highly symbolic gesture in Naples to
support this city's rediscovery of its better side. Thanks to
Earth Day Italia, Naples will be sharing its renewed
environmental commitment with all the other places celebrating
Earth Day 2012''. Also expected at the concert is the Mayor of
the city Luigi De Magistris.
Earth Day has been celebrated across the world over the past
42 years and it involves 500 million people in more than 175
countries, thanks to coordination by the 22,000 Earth Day
Network partners. In Italy, the 2012 event is spotlighting
Naples but there are many other Earth Day-related projects
happening in Italy. In collaboration wit the scouts of the CNGEI
association, a series of environmental initiatives in green
areas will take place under the title ''Let's keep our parks
tidy''. These take place between April 22 and June 21 up and
down the country and they will be accompanied by a photo
campaign on the state of Italy's green areas to document the
recovery operations being undertaken.
Rome, which has hosted the concert over recent years, will
see a project by the Bioparco Foundation, that will be promoting
''Adopt an Animal'': by contributing 25 euros, which will go
entirely to Bioparco, anyone will be able to adopt an elephant
or a chimpanzee to help the Bioparco with looking after these
creatures. This will also support conservation projects and
projects to protect threatened species.
Another project connected with the themes chosen for Earth
Day 2012 is ''Let Us Mobilise the Planet - One Billion Green
Actions''. This day aims to invite everybody to do everything
they can in their daily lives to help save the environment. The
organisers say this is an invitation that has already generated
over 940 million projects registered on the website of Earth Day
Network (www.earthday.org) and which aims to reach one million
green actions in time for the World Summit in Rio de Janeiro
from June 20 to 22. (ANSAmed).